What to see and do in La Baule Pays de la Loire

Discover the stylish seaside resort La Baule – and La Brière, its wetland neighbour in Pays de la Loire.

Beach resorts can get pretty crowded on a summer Saturday, but head down to the waterfront at La Baule and there’s plenty of space for everyone. Tucked into a curve of the coastline just north of the Loire estuary, La Baule-Escoublac – to give the town its full name – boasts a glorious arc of golden sand stretching for nine seductive kilometres between the headlands of Le Pouliguen and Pornichet.

Turn your back on the sea however and just a few miles inland lies a very different watery landscape. The Parc Naturel Régional de la Brière is France’s second largest wetland area after the Camargue, bordered by the river Loire and the shipyards of Saint-Nazaire to the south, the Vilaine river and Brittany to the north. Stay in La Baule and you can enjoy a wide range of aquatic activities in, on and beside the water.

The history of La Baule

I arrive by car from the walled town and salt marshes of neighbouring Guérande. Barely 6 km apart, they make a dramatic contrast. One a medieval city with lofty ramparts and towers; the other, a modern resort of low-rise buildings and seaside villas. And what villas!

Today’s resort grew out of the humble village of Escoublac which holds the dubious distinction of having to move inland to escape the onslaught of sand blown in from the dunes. In 1779, this once coastal community shifted away from the shore, but gradually the dunes were stabilised with planting schemes and in the 1830s, tourists began to trickle in from Saint-Nazaire to nearby Pornichet and Le Croisic.

Fast forward to the 1880s, the arrival of the railway and a growing fashion for sea bathing. Two Parisian entrepreneurs involved with the railway – Jules-Joseph Hennecart and Edouard Darlu – quickly saw the potential of Escoublac as a new holiday resort. So they bought up 40 hectares of dunes at La Bôle, enlisted the help of local businessmen, and laid a broad avenue from the station to the sea. Renamed Avenue du Général de Gaulle in 1945, it is now one of the town’s main streets for shopping and restaurants.

More amenities followed and soon wealthy buyers were investing in plots to build their own holiday villas. In 1896, the resort was renamed La Baule and despite the dips in fortunes created by two World Wars, the town has grown steadily to be one of the most popular resorts on the Atlantic Coast.

La Baule’s sea front villas were sadly redeveloped during the post-war years in what can only be seen now as a tragedy of urban planning. Great if you want a holiday apartment with your feet in the ocean, but completely lacking in atmosphere. Go behind the bland sea front architecture however and you immediately step back a century.

What to see and do in La Baule

Today there are few nicer urban strolls than meandering along La Baule’s pine-scented Allées and Avenues to peer through garden gates and over ornamental walls at the eclectic mix of flamboyant properties, 15 of them given protected status for their exceptional architecture. Each villa is different in style, from half-timbered ‘Anglo-Normand’ mansions to Art Deco splendour and medieval fantasies. And each one has a name, often in Breton, La Baule originally being part of Brittany rather than Pays de la Loire.

I stop first outside Villa Symbol, built in 1881 in Anglo-Normand style and the private home of architect Georges Lafont. An eye-catching combination of stone and timber, curved roof lines and embellished spire, it was the first grand villa that visitors would see as they came out from the station, a great advertisement for the 250 properties that Lafont would go on to design in the town.

Close by, I come across Coq de Roche, a classic example of Art Deco style with its whitewashed facades and red shutters, flat roof and metal balconies. La Baule’s many thousands of trees are also protected, but only a handful of properties can boast their original gardens and, as at Villa Saint-Charles, an outdoor gallery where 19^th century visitors would sit to inhale the clean air, often to recover from TB.

I soak up the period atmosphere at Hôtel Saint-Christophe, a 4-star hotel composed of four individual villas dating from the early 1900s. Just a short walk from the beach and boutiques, it’s a great place to sample the good life with individually designed bedrooms and stylish public rooms. After an aperitif in the hotel’s shady garden, I stroll to Place du Maréchal Leclerc for dinner in the garden of Le M. This popular bistro takes its name from the shape of the two steep roofs of what were once adjoining shops. Across the square stands St Anne’s Chapel, the first public building erected in La Baule. Now an exhibition centre, it was commissioned by M Hennecart, a deeply religious man whose widow was so incensed at the opening of a casino that she left La Baule, never to return.

Le Croisic

I walk home along the sea front as the sun sinks over the calm ocean and watch families, friends and even horse riders make the most of a balmy evening on the beach. And after a blissfully quiet night, I head west out of La Baule next morning for the short drive along the south side of the Guérande salt pans. Time to spare? Hire an electric bike instead from Le Pouliguen Bikevasion to visit Le Croisic, Batz-sur-Mer and maybe the Grand Blockhaus Museum, a World War II bunker that tells the story of the Saint-Nazaire Pocket.

Now designated a Petite Cité de Caractère of the Loire-Atlantique department, Le Croisic stands on the headland where the ocean flows through a narrow gap into the salt marshes. Enjoy a drink beside the marina or at a café table in the pretty town centre; visit the Océarium sea life centre; and pay homage to the seafront statue of Pierre Bouguer, 18^th century scientist, mathematician and astronomer.

Brière Regional Natural Park

Swapping salt water for fresh, I turn the car inland to explore the Brière Regional Natural Park or PNR. Nicknamed the Pays Noir or Black Country because of its rich peat reserves, this freshwater marshland is bisected by 140 km of canals navigable by flat-bottomed boat. Peat is no longer harvested, but the marsh is used for livestock, hunting and fishing. Find out more about the flora, fauna and traditional way of life in the showpiece hamlet of Kerhinet near Saint-Lyphard, its single street fringed by thatched cottages housing craft businesses and displays.

Then take a short drive to the cluster of cottages that make up the tiny Port de Bréca, departure point for discovery trips by boat or on board a horse-drawn wagon. If you’re feeling energetic, hire a rowing boat, but I can recommend the guided tour from L’Arche Briéronne with a knowledgeable local guide who will punt you through the canals whilst explaining the fragile ecosystem of this magical wetland.

Beyond the marsh, the cranes of Saint-Nazaire’s busy shipyards are clearly visible on the horizon, but here at water level, life moves at a gentle pace, much as it has for centuries. La Baule … La Brière … two very different water worlds that combine to make a unique and addictive double-act.

Tourist information from www.labaule-guerande.com